If you visit Walden Pond in Massachusetts, it does not take much of a look around to realize that Henry David Thoreau, the famous author of Walden, was a fraud. His retreat in the woods was not a retreat at all, but right smack in the middle of nineteenth century suburbia. For an excellent look at Thoreau, the brilliant contemplative, see Leon Edel’s workHenry D. Thoreau. Edel wrote:

Of the creative spirits that flourished in Concord, Massachusetts, during the middle of the nineteenth century, it might be said that Hawthorne loved men but felt estranged from them, Emerson loved ideas even more than men, and Thoreau loved himself. Less of an artist than Hawthorne, less of a thinker than Emerson, Thoreau made of his life a sylvan legend, that of man alone in communion with nature.Read More »

If there was any doubt that The New York Times is an enemy of the American people, it should be dispelled by the newspaper’s analysis of the victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts. There are three basic reasons Brown won: a mysterious lack of energy by Democrats; the deceptions and “stealth” of Republicans; and the petty materialistic concerns of Americans. Only ruthlessness and selfishness could possibly explain resistance to socialism. The relevant pieces can be found here and here and here.